Mohammad-Hossein Maher (b. 1957, Abadan, Iran) graduated from the Tehran College of Decorative Arts and has been painting for the past 25 years. As a complex of mores, creeds, arts, and life-styles that shape the historical experience of a people, culture in all its manifestations continues to possess him.

He started his career by painting the people of the southern regions of Iran and continued by depicting the general social mood of the time and picturing people’s social detachment and unresponsiveness. Subsequently he began his studies on the characteristics and potentials of Persian Painting (miniature). With each passing phase his inquisitiveness about the society that he lives in has remained the driving force of his works. Over the years, whether as a painter or an art teacher, Maher has offered the fruits of his cultural scrutiny to viewers and the younger generation of Iranian painters.

The current exhibit is a retrospective of Mohammad-Hossein Maher's work in the past decade that covers four distinct periods. His main concern in respective series -- Masks, Myth, Shock and Monuments -- is memory and the role that historical experience plays in the construction of culture. In Masks, for example, he is looking from the outside at how our constructed identity has changed over time. In Myths he reminds us of the niceties of a lost imagination. The Shock series underlines the violence and cruelty of this loss. And, Monuments is an attempt to recover an identity borne by historical heritage. In each of these four series, Maher is looking at the history and culture of his land, and he levels his criticism through a unique artistic language. Monuments raised to commemorate an individual or event in the past become a powerful pretext for the artist to bring to the visual realm the question of an arrested collective memory. By recasting ancient stories and myths from the past, moreover, he creatively addresses a narrative culture with the attempt to alleviate social amnesia. The current exhibit is a compendium of a decade of Hossein Maher's penetrating critique of the culture and history of his land.

Overview and HistoryTehran is the capital of Iran and the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of fifteen million people living under the peaks of the Alborz mountain range.Although archaeological evidence places human activity around Tehran back into the years 6000BC, the city was not mentioned in any writings until much later, in the thirteenth century. It's a relatively new city by Iranian standards.But Tehran was a well-known village in the ninth century. It grew rapidly when its neighboring city, Rhages, was destroyed by Mongolian raiders. Many people fled to Tehran.In the seventeenth century Tehran became home to the rulers of the Safavid Dynasty. This is the period when the wall around the city was first constructed. Tehran became the capital of Iran in 1795 and amazingly fast growth followed over the next two hundred years.The recent history of Tehran saw construction of apartment complexes and wide avenues in place of the old Persian gardens, to the detriment of the city's cultural history.The city at present is laid out in two general parts. Northern Tehran is more cosmopolitan and expensive, southern Tehran is cheaper and gets the name "downtown."Getting ThereMehrabad airport is the original one which is currently in the process of being replaced by Imam Khomeini International Airport. The new one is farther away from the city but it now receives all the international traffic, so allow an extra hour to get there or back.TransportationTehran driving can be a wild free-for-all like some South American cities, so get ready for shared taxis, confusing bus routes and a brand new shiny metro system to make it all better. To be fair, there is a great highway system here.The metro has four lines, tickets cost 2000IR, and they have segregated cars. The women-only carriages are the last two at the end, FYI.Taxis come in two flavors, shared and private. Private taxis are more expensive but easier to manage for the visiting traveler. Tehran has a mean rush hour starting at seven AM and lasting until 8PM in its evening version. Solution? Motorcycle taxis! They cut through the traffic and any spare nerves you might have left.People and CultureMore than sixty percent of Tehranis were born outside of the city, making it as ethnically and linguistically diverse as the country itself. Tehran is the most secular and liberal city in Iran and as such it attracts students from all over the country.Things to do, RecommendationsTake the metro to the Tehran Bazaar at the stop "Panzda Gordad". There you can find anything and everything -- shoes, clothes, food, gold, machines and more. Just for the sight of it alone you should take a trip there.If you like being outside, go to Darband and drink tea in a traditional setting. Tehranis love a good picnic and there are plenty of parks to enjoy. Try Mellat park on a friday (fridays are public holidays), or maybe Park Daneshjou, Saaii or Jamshidieh.Remember to go upstairs and have a look around, always always always! The Azadi Tower should fit the bill; it was constructed to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire.Tehran is also full of museums such as:the Contemporary Art Museumthe Abghine Musuem (glass works)the 19th century Golestan Royal Palace museumthe museum of carpets (!!!)Reza Abbasi Museum of extraordinary miniaturesand most stunning of all,the Crown Jewels Museum which holds the largest pink diamond in the world and many other jaw-dropping jewels.Text by Steve Smith.

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